ARVI Quietly Removes ACEMIX List of Nearly 90 Vessels, Argentine and Malvinas-Linked Fleets No Longer Shown Together

The Vigo Port Fishermen's Cooperative (ARVI) has modified the official page of its subsidiary body ACEMIX, removing a list of nearly 90 fishing vessels. The list had previously placed two categories of vessels side by side under the same association: those linked to companies operating in Argentina and those linked to companies operating in the Malvinas Islands (Falkland Islands).

A comparison of recently indexed content from the ACEMIX website with the version ARVI currently still makes public shows the differences between the two versions are specific and clear. The old version stated that ACEMIX brings together shipowners with joint ventures established in third countries, and explicitly listed destinations including Argentina, Chile, Peru, Namibia, Malvinas, South Africa and Morocco; below that description was a "FLOTA" (fleet) section listing nearly 90 fishing vessels. The current page retains the association's general definition and the average characteristics of the so-called "standard vessel type," but no longer displays the country listing or the full vessel list.

The removed list included fishing vessels such as API V, API VI, API VII, API VIII, API X, API XII, Aresit, Ceres, Don Francisco I, Don Luis I, Echizen Maru, Géminis, Golfo San Matías, Ventarrón I and Vieirasa XVII. The same list also included Argos Cíes, Argos Pereira, Argos Vigo, Golden Chicha, Hermanos Touza, Igueldo and New Polar, vessels historically or currently associated with corporate structures operating under the Malvinas fisheries regime.

The correspondence between the list and the Argentine side can be reconstructed from independent official documents. Several resolutions of the Federal Fisheries Council place API V and API VII within the group headed by Iberconsa de Argentina, which also includes vessels such as Ceres, Géminis and Ventarrón I. Iberconsa's own corporate history records also contain the acquisition of Pesquera Santa Cruz S.A. and document the presence of API V, VI, VIII, X and XII in the evolution of its fleet. The case of API XII is particularly clear: the company publicly announced its joining of Pesquera Santa Cruz in order to operate from Puerto Deseado. Aresit, which also appeared in the old ACEMIX fleet list, is associated in Argentine regulations with Pesquera Deseado S.A.U.

Regarding links to Malvinas structures, Argos Cíes, Argos Pereira and Argos Vigo in the list are noteworthy. The Malvinas companies registry still lists companies related to the Argos group, including Argos Pereira Ltd, as well as companies with Spanish managers such as Orion Fishing Company Ltd and Jupiter Fishing Company. The continuity of this corporate architecture is also reflected in Argos Berbés: in 2025 the islands' maritime authority formally notified that the vessel belongs to Orion Fishing Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Argos Group Ltd, had been entered in the local registry, and had been granted a license to participate in the loligo (squid) season. Armadora Pereira's own fleet introduction also labels Argos Cíes, Argos Vigo and Argos Pereira as "Malvinas / Falkland Islands." Other names in the list have similar records: official documents of the islands contain corporate structures related to Golden Chicha, while historical materials allow reconstruction of Spanish joint ventures related to New Polar and other vessels that previously operated in Malvinas fishing grounds.

ARVI was not unaware of ACEMIX's international structure. ARVI's institutional documents have historically described ACEMIX as the representative organization of Spanish shipowners with joint ventures established in third countries, and explicitly mentioned Argentina and Malvinas within this international structure. There is also an institutional record of a meeting: held in Vigo on June 6, 2018, with then Argentine Undersecretary of Fisheries Juan Bosch, attended on the ACEMIX side by then association president Javier Touza and director Alberto Freire, together with representatives of ARVI and other Spanish business organizations. Joint ventures between European capital and Argentine operators also have their own legal history: the fisheries agreement signed between Argentina and the then European Economic Community in 1993 established specific mechanisms to promote such joint ventures, accompanied by vessel transfers, investment and Community financing. Spain subsequently established a dedicated registry and information notification mechanism for fisheries enterprises based in third countries, and ACEMIX developed within this process.

One key detail of this modification: several pieces of information related to Malvinas Islands fisheries vessels remain on ARVI's public pages. On its general page, names such as Argos Cíes, Argos Pereira, Argos Vigo, Golden Chicha, Hermanos Touza, Igueldo and New Polar still appear among the vessels associated with the Vigo association. What has disappeared from the dedicated ACEMIX page is the combined display of this fleet with vessels of Argentine-linked companies, as well as the explicit listing of Argentina and Malvinas as countries where members establish joint ventures. The direct result is that ACEMIX's current public page provides less information for directly reconstructing its international composition than what the association displayed just days earlier.

The timing of the modification gives this change particular weight. The Federal Court of Río Grande (Juzgado Federal de Río Grande), presided over by Judge Mariel Borruto, has accepted and taken jurisdiction over the class action filed by Fundación Agustina Lerena, and has opened an evidentiary phase aimed at examining elements such as the economic and commercial relationships among the companies involved in the claims of the case. The ruling also ordered information requests to the National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) and the Argentine Naval Prefecture (Prefectura Naval Argentina), before ruling on the requested precautionary measures. Seafood Media subsequently reported that the modification of the ACEMIX page occurred within the previous 48 hours, and published images of the previous content.